Originally Posted by rickh

First off, take what I say with a grain of salt, as I have not lived in Italy, but do get to northern Italy 4-5 times a year.

In my experience, open, wireless access is... far less than ubiquitous. If your primary access will be your own home router/AP, then yeah, I'd consider something like that.

If you're out and about, I would think one of the newer cellphone models with Wifi built in would be a better option. That way you still have your usual cell connectivity, yet can save some money using Wifi should you happen upon an open AP - again, very rare in my experience.

R.
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Originally Posted by DingerX

Ciao anidel,

I suppose it depends on how much you use your phone.

Some possible snags:
A. Latency. 3G connections give a lot of bandwidth, but they're not all super-responsive. Skype/In/Out is cheap, but I notice more latency that on a regular phone call (after all, it's an internet call plus a PSTN call). Combining those two (or even just the 3G part) could result in suboptimal performance.

B. Battery life. My phone (on which nobody calls me) goes 10 days between charges; I charge my n800 at least once a day. That's 2 hours of being plugged into the wall, during which I don't have autonomy. Can you sacrifice the mobility?

C. Size. The thing is cool, but it's a little too big for a phone; and you'd need to run a headset (Wired or BT) for practical calling.

D. Complexity. Your proposed telephone system is:
PSTN->Internet->Cell Network->BT Data Modem->N8x0->BT Headset
As opposed to
PSTN->Cell Network->Handset
Each step represents a point of failure, and each connection an axis of failure. You are replacing a 5-failure-point system with one that has 11. In terms of likelihood of failure, in the "handset" system, you're likely to lose your cellphone connection (move out of coverage, interference, trying to make a call after a soccer match featuring your home town) or your handset functionality (breaks, battery dies, gets stolen, left at home); for the proposed system, you've tripled the likely failure points.

So give it a shot, and let us know how it works!

Originally Posted by anidel

But I won't need access to WiFi hotspots (that'd be just a plus).
I was planning to rely totally on the UMTS/HSDPA connection.
I was thinking about a always on connection thru the Three data plan (tethering the tablet to the bluetooth cellphone).

The only drawback is that if there is no Three signal, my cellphone number will continue to work as it roams over TIM with no additional cost. This does not hold for the data plan.

Originally Posted by HiVoltage

anidel, before you go in for a 2 year contract, make sure you read the fine print well. Some operators (well, the majority I guess), are either blocking VoIP, or mentioning it is not allowed in the contract.